Yes, Your Grace: How to Prepare for and Survive the Siege of Davern

To survive the Siege of Davern in Yes, Your Grace, you must secure at least 600 allied soldiers, reinforce your castle defenses, and protect a reserve of gold and supplies before the Radovian host arrives. Neglecting any of these three pillars will cause your lines to break or bankrupt your kingdom before the battle begins.

Managing Weekly Gold and Supplies

Every turn in Davern begins and ends in your throne room ledger. Gold finances structural upgrades, agent wages, and diplomatic agreements. Supplies feed the castle household, your standing garrison, and arriving refugees. If gold drops to zero, you cannot dispatch troops or repair walls. If food runs out, castle happiness collapses into rioting.

To keep your economy stable ahead of the siege:

• Filter petitioner requests: Turn away petitioners seeking handouts for drunken disputes, bad gambles, or superstition. Spend gold only on projects that rebuild granaries, reopen trade stalls, or clear farmland, as these provide recurring weekly income.
• Keep an emergency cushion: Do not spend down to zero before ending a week. Random events such as spoiled stores or bandit raids can drain your stock unexpectedly. Maintain a baseline reserve of at least 15 to 20 gold and 20 food entering mid-game weeks.
• Moderate tax adjustments: Raising taxes gives fast cash but drops kingdom happiness. Only raise taxes when you have spare grain or funds to sponsor festivals that restore morale.

Deploying Council Agents to Cut Costs

Hiring your three primary council members—the General, the Hunter, and the Witch (Audry)—is the most efficient way to handle petitioners. While each agent charges a weekly gold stipend, sending an agent to resolve a crisis avoids paying large lump sums of gold or food from your treasury.

Send the General to clear out bandit camps instead of bribing them with direct treasury gold. Use the Hunter to eliminate predators instead of reimbursing farmers with livestock supplies. Keeping your cash reserves intact allows you to afford mandatory siege upgrades.

Securing Allied Lords for 600 Troops

King Eryk's personal guard cannot defeat the Radovian army alone. You must send your emissary via the pigeon coop to recruit neighboring lords until your total force reaches roughly 600 soldiers.

Each noble provides troops and recurring resources, but each attaches specific conditions to their allegiance:

• Lord Grego: Supplies infantry units. He requires royal backing in local disputes and reacts poorly if you favor secular or occult solutions over religious customs.
• Lord Miron: Provides a balanced contingent of soldiers and weekly gold tribute. He expects you to execute harsh punishments against local poachers and dissenters.
• Lord Etton: Controls rich trade operations and surplus grain. Securing his alliance requires ruling in his favor during trade conflicts, but his food deliveries are essential for feeding an expanded garrison.
• Lord Viausky: Offers heavily armored infantry. He requires you to send your General to stabilize his personal lands before he agrees to march to Davern.

When two lords present conflicting demands, prioritize the noble whose army contribution gets you closer to the 600-soldier threshold.

Constructing Necessary Castle Fortifications

Troop numbers alone will not stop siege engines. As the battle timer runs down, reallocate your remaining gold into structural defenses.

Purchase these three castle upgrades before the enemy arrives:

1. Gate Reinforcements: Bracing the main gate with iron prevents battering rams from shattering your front entrance during the opening assault.
2. Oil Cauldrons: Mounting oil cauldrons above the gatehouse allows your garrison to eliminate clustered breach teams without losing infantry in melee combat.
3. Archer Battlements: Fixing damaged parapets protects allied archers from return fire and improves their damage against advancing siege towers.

Purchase these upgrades several weeks in advance so your council agents can oversee installation and prevent structural defects.

Defending the Castle and Handling the Aftermath

During the siege, combat unfolds in tactical phases where order timing dictates casualty rates:

1. Order archers to fire volleys as enemy lines march across the open field.
2. Hold back cavalry units until enemy foot soldiers commit to the gatehouse.
3. Dump boiling oil only when enemy infantry pack tightly around the battering ram.

Once the invasion is broken, Davern faces immediate economic strain. External allied levies consume substantial weekly upkeep; dismiss these borrowed troops immediately after the battle ends to prevent an instant deficit. With the siege lifted, send your surviving agents to repair scorched peripheral villages and purify water supplies to restore your weekly tax base.